


Act of Grace

by magicianlogician12



Series: You, Me, and the Sea [2]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25291531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicianlogician12/pseuds/magicianlogician12
Summary: Jaina Proudmoore begins her return to Kul Tiras aboard the vessel belonging to an ex-pirate captain, and can't help but wonder if it's doomed to failure before it even begins.
Series: You, Me, and the Sea [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1832245
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Act of Grace

Jaina had imagined her return to Kul Tiras a number of different ways over the years, few of them good, and only in the most desperate of circumstances.

Her return, facilitated by the Alliance, was something that typically would have been handled by official diplomats, but Jaina needed to be there, to do this herself. To answer, however harshly, for what had transpired in her absence. This method, however unorthodox, would ensure they arrived with as little fanfare as possible–whether that tactic would serve them or hinder them remained to be seen.

As it was, Jaina had imagined her return for a long time–but had never imagined that she would be doing so under the banner of a notorious pirate.

The  _ Silent Tide _ was a well-kept ship, if cluttered with various crates of cargo and loops of rope that had only just been stored in a rush as the ship’s crew rushed to accommodate their new orders. They’d been caught unprepared, but had adjusted accordingly, and with only marginal jokes about potentially finding vessels along the way to make the trip “worth their while”. They had long since been contracted as privateers by the Alliance, but that arrangement simply made their activities legal so long as they made themselves useful.

That made all their bluster and bravado empty and useless, but Jaina had come to expect nothing less from a crew of this caliber. And that was to say  _ nothing _ about their captain.

Captain Shadeweaver was, in a word, vibrant.

In the time Jaina had known her–the few days after the battle at Lordaeron, and now for the several hours they’d been at sea–she had been subjected to no fewer than a half-dozen sly grins and over-exaggerated bows as the captain addressed her. She clapped her crew members on their shoulders as they went about their tasks preparing the  _ Tide _ for departure, made quick jokes with them even as her long, loping strides carried her to her next task, and moved with a subtle grace across her ship that spoke of many long years spent aboard its decks.

She lived with a kind of casual recklessness that Jaina both envied and found herself annoyed by. Surely someone who had lived for so long as Captain Shadeweaver had could stand to take their life a little more  _ seriously? _

Jaina pushed herself off the railing of the  _ Tide’ _ s upper deck as the last of the sun’s rays departed the horizon, and the stars began to shine more clearly without the light pollution of the city. Captain Shadeweaver’s lookout was one of the only people still outside, and going inside surely meant Jaina would have to deal with the rest of the  _ Tide’ _ s raucous crew, but being out there, watching the endless horizon, felt in that moment extraordinarily lonely.

Down below, the sounds of animated conversation drew Jaina to the galley, where she saw a flash of dark violet hair belonging to the captain herself, at the head of a table surrounded by her inner crew. All the chairs were filled except for one at Captain Shadeweaver’s right–her blind side.

There was a story there, Jaina had a feeling, but it was not her place to ask, and it was easy enough to convince herself she had no reason to care.

“Proudmoore!” Captain Shadeweaver executed another exaggerated bow from her seat, a mug in hand, and Jaina suddenly felt every eye in the room turn to her, regretting her decision to come down here instead of watching the horizon. “Come down here to see what all the yelling was about? Don’t worry, it was just me–Eastland’s a dirty cheat, is all.”

It was only then Jaina looked down at the tabletop and saw cards spread out in equal measure across the tabletop, nearly covering its surface at the center. There were no coins, though, which meant… “Your table appears empty of a wager worth cheating for.”

Captain Shadeweaver rolled her whole head instead of just her single remaining eye, leaning back so that two of her chair’s legs left the deck, and planting her booted feet on the tabletop. “We don’t wager so much with coin anymore–a bad habit I’m trying to break. We were wagering for stories. And since Eastland here,” the captain turned a fierce eye on one of her human crew members, who flashed her a wide grin, “is an underhanded cheat, I have to tell one, now.”

“Tell the one about your eye!” Eastland called out, and was immediately followed by a loud chorus of agreement, individual words being swallowed up by the indecipherable noise of their excitement.

Above them all rose Captain Shadeweaver’s voice as the legs of her chair abruptly met the deck again and the mug in her hand was set haphazardly on its surface. “Nowhere in the wager does it say you can  _ request _ what story I tell, Eastland!”

Then came a wide array of  _ disagreements _ , enough to give Jaina a headache at the base of her head, and she was about to turn on her heel and walk out when the captain herself raised both hands in defeat, and the yelling died down into almost too-sudden silence.

“Fine–not that it’s that long of a story, anyway.” Captain Shadeweaver picked up her mug again and swirled its contents around, leaning back in her chair once again, placing her feet amongst the discarded cards from the game thus far. “I wrestled a naga with my bare hands, is all.”

Jaina didn’t know what possessed her to say it–maybe stress, maybe her annoyance at Captain Shadeweaver’s seeming inability to take their situation seriously, maybe envy that said captain had hardly a care in the world, really–but the first thing that came out of her mouth was, “Is that intended to be some kind of innuendo, Captain?”

Captain Shadeweaver gaped, then threw her head back and  _ guffawed, _ so hard she nearly fell over backwards in her off-balance chair. She leaned forward this time, all four of the chair’s legs on the ground, and she set her mug down on the tabletop with her fingers steepled together, a smirk lifting up one side of her lips in a deadly curve. “Why, Proudmoore? Would you be jealous if I said ‘yes’?”

Jaina felt the back of her neck burning with something that tried to be mortification and shock, and the rest of the room was laughing, and Jaina felt like she had set herself up for failure the instant she’d attempted to evoke shame from a former pirate captain, who demonstrably had little shame at all. “Don’t be ridiculous.” she snapped, though she knew she’d lost control of this conversation the moment she’d let Captain Shadeweaver goad her into it.

“Well, as much as it  _ pains _ me to admit it,” the captain said dryly as she picked up her mug and took a drink from it, “I  _ didn’t _ seduce a naga–I’d had to run the  _ Tide _ ashore in a hurry for emergency repairs, and when I went back into the water to try and find some cargo I’d lost in our maneuvering, a naga ambushed me and tried to drown me. Didn’t manage to kill it, and I lost the eye, to boot. Not one of my finer moments.” her smirk was back, then, and she added, “If you want to keep being jealous of the naga I didn’t seduce, though, Proudmoore, who am I to stop you?”

“You couldn’t have your eye healed?” Jaina stubbornly avoided the topic of being jealous of a  _ naga _ , which was  _ absurd _ , in favor of something more practical.

“I did–well, kind of.” Rolling her head again, the captain rocked her chair back and put one boot on the seat of the empty chair at her right. “My healer at the time did the best he could, and made sure I wouldn’t have scars.” Captain Shadeweaver’s single remaining eye lit up with mischief as her smirk evolved into a grin. “I’d say I’m still roguishly attractive, wouldn’t you agree?”

Rather than respond, Jaina did turn on her heel to leave, this time, leaving the sounds of uproarious laughter behind her.

She was not  _ flustered _ , Jaina told herself as she stormed back onto the upper deck, in all its quiet loneliness. That would imply she cared about Captain Shadeweaver’s blatant and boorish attempts to get under her skin. It  _ had _ been a long time since anyone had thought to get under her skin at all in such a manner, though.

The horizon stretched out endlessly before the ship’s bow, and the sound of waves lapping at the hull was enough to take the worst of the tension out of her shoulders.

“Hey, Proudmoore.”

And just like that, it returned. Jaina turned to see Captain Shadeweaver, holding an additional mug this time, a single tendril of steam wafting from it. “What did you need, Captain?” Jaina asked stiffly.

She held out the second mug and said, “To keep you from freezing to death out here. It’s tea. Don’t exactly have all the fancy cutlery you might be used to–too easily breakable on a ship like this.”

Jaina regarded Captain Shadeweaver for a brief moment, and the captain blinked once, slowly, still holding out the peace offering–Jaina assumed it was intended as a peace offering–with her free hand. She took the mug.

“I apologize if myself or my crew crossed any boundaries, Proudmoore.” the captain told her, passing her mug from one hand to the other. “Just wanted to make it clear–my crew will follow my orders, and I’m here to follow yours on the Alliance’s behalf.”

“Your assistance is appreciated, Captain.” Jaina looked down into the waves, the surface too choppy to see her face within. “I ought to have known better than to attempt a battle of wits with you, though.”

“Nonsense!” Captain Shadeweaver told her cheerfully. “That was the most fun I’ve had in months. Do feel free to try again sometime, if you dare.”

It was a blatant challenge, and Jaina looked up this time to see the captain’s face split into a wide grin. For all her exuberance and vivacity, Jaina didn’t know if the captain was truly capable of sincerity. Any of their banter would be superficial at best, and at worst it could be at her expense.

That didn’t stop her from saying, instead of the firm denial she’d originally imagined, “Perhaps I will.”


End file.
